


Adornment

by orphan_account



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-06
Updated: 2010-03-06
Packaged: 2017-10-07 18:09:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/67795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The wound was actually very minor. (Drabble)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adornment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lamis](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Lamis).



The wound was actually very minor. Arthur was more concerned about the doe showing her heels as she leapt away through the undergrowth, another missed opportunity, but Merlin knew how Arthur liked to conceal his pains and pressed a worried hand to his shoulder.

"It is barely a scratch," Arthur protested, trying to shrug him off.

"It's bleeding," said Merlin. "I'll need to look at it."

Arthur looked at Merlin's face and sighed, and sent on the rest of the hunting party so he could be nursemaided in peace — and with as much dignity as possible.

They sat on a fallen tree. Arthur suppressed a shiver as he lifted off the torn shirt; the light was dim and the air cold this deep into the forest. His skin prickled with it. A mist drifted in vague figures among the tree trunks, white-blue and quiet. The wound was a point of heat on his body, and Merlin's fingertips circled it like constellations as he held Arthur still.

"If you take any longer," Arthur said, watching the mist, "the doe shall come back again, thinking us long gone."

"If I go any faster, I'll probably make it worse," Merlin replied, beginning to wind an unnecessary bandage around Arthur's shoulder. He must have taken to carrying them in his pack, which seemed both sensible and insulting.

Arthur felt the brush of Merlin's sleeve against his chest, a zig-zag dragging faintly against the fine hair. He turned his head to try and see the progress and heard a far-off call of a swallow, dipping invisibly into the morning. There was white linen at the corner of his vision, blue linen above, and the black of Merlin's hair.

"I shan't be able to move at all," he grumbled.

"Patience," said Merlin, and spread his fingers across the valley of Arthur's spine.

Arthur fell silent, feeling the warmth of it, breathing in pale air.


End file.
